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Old 2nd Aug 2001, 01:10
  #20 (permalink)  
Nick Lappos
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Guys,
This is a great thread, with many good thoughts. We don't discuss stuck pedal in the flight manual because it is really pretty rare (can't recall any in any S-76 in 4 million hours), but it makes good training talk because it exercises the brain about anti-torque and stuff.

I must say that practicing it in a Bell is easy because the Bell has no collective-to-yaw mixing, so if the pilot freezes his feet, it flys like a stuck tail rotor system. In a Sikorsky (Sea King and S-76) the collective will automatically retrim the tail rotor with the pedal stuck, so the pilot cannot simulate a stuck tail rotor control system in flight. If you freeze the pedals and fly around working the collective, the aircraft flys very well, because the mechanical mixing is nearly spot on.

Generally, stuck controls are bad things, and a chance to either become a hero or a goat. I have had several, but not in yaw. I believe that they will come at a bad time, and that the pilot must figure out what he must do to get down. Left pedal is generally good, because if slowed down properly, the aircraft can be brought to slower and slower speeds, but care must be taken because if the left pedal setting is near the limit, a reduced collective deceleration might turn into a nightmare as the left yaw goes out farther, and the aircraft could depart and spin.

The closer to full right pedal the failure is, the more the answer looks like an autorotation.

With either, the pilot can practice trimming in a steady heading sideslip, which is more difficult than it seems when the trim ball is somewhere in Kansas. The big problem in flying at such large tail force conditions is that the airspeed system may not indicate at those angles, and if the speed truly drops, the aircraft will spin. Rule of thumb is Nose Left, raise collective, Nose Right drop it.